Last night was the third Tuesday in the month, so it had to be Pontardawe Script Cafe. The speaker was Kit Lambert, a playwright and poet, who's recently adapted Gullivers Travels for Hijinx Theatre.
The aim of the workshop was to look at a short story written by one of our members, Hillary Wickers, called 'The Brown Cardboard Suitcase', and see how it might be adapted for the stage. It is a story about a child who faced constant rejection but who remained positive and who was able to turn adversity into adventure through the use of her vivid imagination. Kit guided us through a number of questions about the piece and helped us pull out key themes and moments of drama. We tried to visualise aspects of the story on stage. That produced an interesting dynamic between those of us who see imagery symbolically and those who are more literal. As a result some exciting ideas emerged for staging and set design.
Kit had also asked us to all bring a memento from our childhood. Many of us were children in the 1950's and our mementos reflected this. One member had brought a complete bus conductor's outfit with a ticket holder and hat that looked far too big for a child; another brought a cat her mother had made from bits of her security blanket that had been sliced up by her nice brother and sister. I brought a black and white photo of myself aged about seven that has a cigarette burn all along one side. I often wonder how the photo got that burn. Good material for a story, eh?
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